cinderella gray, oguri as the main character? say less. i will be there no matter what. grandma’s funeral, i dress in casual wear, cingray? i come in with my 3 piece suit. its that simple. but for real tho, i think this show is pretty good, and its coming from the goats (cygames pictures thank god). its been journey typing these up and gotta say, its been fun. but the journey is over (at least for now, i will make another 1 for cour 2 when that comes out), and im ready to move on to review more anime cus i like doing these. anyways lets start with animation.

cygames pictures (G O A T S) now has finally gotten to work on a TV series for uma and was excited to see what they were cooking up. and to no surprise, its really damn good. the artstyle was the first thing i notice to which fits to match with the tone of the show. its great choice to tied to theme of the rising underdog brimming with overwhelming talent, to challenge the top league of umas but everyone rejecting how a little nobody from a small town shows up to compete with the big wigs. its an amazing way to showcase the underlying tone for story with just a simple artstyle choice. the animation is also stellar, with nice moments of sakuga, even in the little moments when want to just show extra details (a bit of flex but im not complaining). the way character acting is handled is excellent, seeing emotions that feel very reminiscent of movie/ovas that you dont normally see in the main series. all in all cygames cooked.

so story. cinderella. a story about a girl that with the help of some godmothers, is able to live her dreams as a princess and get with her prince charming. this is great title for the show as is literally the premise of the show. in the countryside of kasamatsu, an aspiring racer known as oguri cap attends to a local racing academy but no knows that she will forever change the horse racing scene in a way no one saw coming. knowing that the real horse’s lore, this isnt much to a surprise for some. but as uma musume loves to utilized the real lore in anyway they can, they come to find a way that intrigues to the viewers for a cool plot design. the main thing i want focus on how this show portrays its characters and its unique relationship with the setting/world. as we progress to the story, with oguri becoming more and more known, the story shifts in dramatic ways that fit in line with oguri’s presence. characters as well changing, an example, the 3 bullies that messed with oguri in the beginning (norn, rudy, and mini) that we know and love, change, respecting oguri’s skills as an amazing racer and obsessive to the point where they scream whenever oguri’s name is mentioned. also i want mention that the support cast for this show is probably best in umamusume anime (although i think new era may contend with that spot idk its hard to choose really) joe and musaka are probably the best example as they really contribute and complement not just each other but with oguri as a whole. without these characters, cingray wouldnt be as impactful if it was just oguri herself trying carrying the weight story (especially the arc with joe’s nationals vs tokai derby bet). god i still havent talk about all stuff that happens in tracen yet, jesus this show is that good lmao (thats that cygames difference right there). alright so now going on to tracen, theres so many little things i could get into, but ill just talk about my favorite moments from this second half. rudolf exuding crazy aura in ep 7 against oguri to not take the twinkle series lightly and her coming back with response that is equally cold af (please i need a prequel story of rudolf with other senior umas pls pls pls). tamano cross in general, i never thought i would like her tbh, but they built up to make her really fun rival for oguri as she is one of first umas to give a run for her money. and finally personally maybe my favorite part of the whole show surprisingly, rudolf confronting with URA chairwomen to convince the committee let oguri in the derby. i cant believe we got something related to the URA related since they im pretty sure they directly ever spoke about the URA in any of animes i watched. this really helps with worldbuilding and just knowing that there is a board that oversees everything is really great touch that adds on the society of uma musume.

ok im going to stop here cus this shit is way too long but this show is genuinely amazing, im glad tamano won that last race, it wouldnt be fun for oguri to just win everything. cant wait for cour 2 and to see cygames pictures cook up what looks to be another great chapter within the uma musume world.

what can i even say about this movie. tbh not much, its got amazing animation, good story, solid characters, unique presentation, and the soundtrack is fucking hype. i cannot believe of this level of work that cygames put into this, its geniunely astounding how good this movie. i hope its not going to be too long, but ill try not gush too hard about it. (im totally gonna gush hard about it)

first up animation, i mean come on. this show is legitimately a 2d animated masterpiece. i cant even describe the levels of work that was put into this. the way they animated the smear frames of the running and impact frames was out of this world. the way characters distort around the outlines is a really neat touch and shows the frenziness and electrifying intensity of the races. nothing short of animated bliss. again this might be too much of a glaze but this is probably top 10 best animated media I’ve seen in the last 15 years. (im not joking)

alright, time for the plot. they chose some interesting characters yet again to focus on. anges tachyon (sick name), crazed mad scientist looking to unlock potential an umamusume is capable of, manhattan cafe (also a sick name), a gloomy shadowy figure chasing an mysterious invisible uma, dantsu flame, peer friendly girl who often folds at the whims of peer pressure, and then we got our protagonist, jungle pocket, a hungry fighter looking to be the strongest racer ever to touch the track. how they portrayed the feeling reaching unbreakable limits with such powerful direction and writing. especially the conversations with trainer tanabe and fuji kiseki. the entrusting the dreams of someone to another is probably one of my favorite troupe themes in anime and they do it in well crafted, well executed fashion. tachyon is definitely star of this movie without doubt as it creates the driving force of narrative and just being character that exudes this otherworldly charisma (albeit a bit strange). jungle pocket is also an amazing protagonist, maybe a bit too classic of shounen formula personality tree but still great to watch her on screen. her proactiveness to engage with characters and her relationship with the supporting cast makes her a joy to watch and grow as you follow her journey. manhanttan cafe (still a really sick name for a horse) has this kinda presence that i felt maybe could have utilized better, same with danstsu flame (although she kinda feels bland in general so idk what they could of done).

anyways if you somehow not watched this legendary piece of art, what are you doing stop reading my dumbass review and watch it. and if you already did WATCH IT AGAIN. and if you did that THEN WATCH 10 MORE TIMES. as much as i praise this flim, i do acutally have this slighty lower than season 2 of the main series just because i personally was attached to the conflict of the narrative happening with teio which actually almost made my grown ass cry. so yeah. but im still down to rewatch this throughout my lifetime tbh.

road to the top is an interesting one because its formatted into a 4 ep ovas which i wished they gave us a full season instead but i guess that asking for too much considering the level of quality that cygames is pushing for these types of projects. this is where we get really into those crazy level animations that you can just see the blood sweet and pure passion that burns in the viewer’s eye. really everything in this ova is just eye candy and i cant wait for whenever we get another one of these “cygames special omega budget” uma projects if ever.

uma musume is great at showcasing interesting and unique characters that give them life thats more than just the character themselves (if that makes sense, i hope it does). opera o is one example of that, even though we dont see much of her as she really is just a competitor in relation to top road and vega. top road is a character that is very much that standard protag herione that wants to win above all else and make her trainer proud. vega here is winning for personal reasons, that she stole her sister’s “life” knowing that winning is a just device to make sure that she suceeds in the place of her dead relative. opera o is the spirit of winning, she relishes in it, bathes in it, and that regardless of outcome, all she wants is to just have a good ass horse race.

what makes road to the top so special (week :trollface:) is that all 3 of these characters represent on what winning means to them. but the road is not just about winning, whats your reason, why is it your reason, to win? winning also doesnt just contain yourself, its the people around you that supported you on this journey. vega here doesnt like that idea, meanie. but she has a reason for thinking its selfish for her to enjoy winning. her imaginary visage of her dead sister doesnt allow that satisfaction. she thinks it is her fault for robbing that life away from her, in fact that its the complete opposite. the heartwarming moment when she realized that she should enjoy racing, she is able to live and see this racetrack in place of her sister. that is what this whole movie is about, and top road is a victim to this as well. we see that as she started losing, she desperately wanted to go back and force herself to train even harder so that would never want to let her trainer down. to people to envy her and cheer her on as she is the horse’s champion of her hometown. and where does opera o fit into all this? well she may the most narracstic, charismatic horse that flauts about amazingness in every word she says, she does care about the people who race with her. that without strong opponents, who is going say “im the strongest in the world!” without being any competition in the first place.

road to the top is a short but inspiring story about uma musumes that want to know what it takes to win without sacrificing the joys of it and learning from what we could take from our mistakes. god this show is fucking good. going to new era next.

another season, another great step of uma musume. this season honestly was quite messy, and really just all over the place. but its ending arc might’ve kinda redeem itself quite nicely. although there are still some parts that i still find quite odd, it was a great chapter of uma musume nonetheless.
lets talk animation since i dont know anything else about how produce an anime (as per my last reviews, im going to watch shirobako one day i swear) but i watched enough to be a little in the know about certain specifics about how animation works and how industry has changed over the course of time. as studio kai picked up uma from the last season, season 2 has tried to impleiment some 3D to some of its scenes which werent a huge deal since it was really only to showcase multiple horses racing on the track which is i assume is harder on 2d to do (again im stupid and not qualified to talk about this lol). here they decide to pretty much do it here as well but also show 3d characteristics on 2d characters (honsetly im not sure about this one but whenever i look at dia i feel she definitely has some sort of thing going on like if you look at kitasan and dia side by side they feel like there totally different idk maybe im hallucinating). i still hope that cygames pictures picks up uma s4 since everything they touched in terms of uma stuff have been great.

(skip this whole paragrah if you want, just summerized 2/3 of the show which i think helps contextualize on why the ending is somewhat redeemable)
so whats next up on the uma story lines? well its pretty much a direct continuation of s2 where two best friends kitasan black and satano diamond go joined their idol’s footsteps to become fellow racehorses at tracen academy. kita and dia were in s2 briefly to showcase they were going follow the footsteps of teio and mcqueen as they were the ones that inspired them to race. kita joining immediately spica while dia on team capella. as show quickly moves to showcasing kita going the japanese derby, but is out performed quickly by duramente. satano also gets her chance to shine as she slowly tries break the satano curse in which eventually does on the kikkashou. but lets take step back a bit, ever since the loss of agaisnt duramente, its been affecting her phyiscally and mentally as she keeps going on a losing streak. theres a part where I really appericated the scene with nice nature as she here acts as the relateable level-headed friend that genuinely wants help kita help back on her feet. this display of characterization from nice nature really helps understand what kind of character she is with just one scene. even though we do not get much from her after this, its nice to have a character whos not just the trainer who can help as a peer. the whole kita training arc was a great segement not just to help get out of kita’s funk but use bourbon and rice shower in a clever way since their ways of training (showcased in s2) benefit kita’s hulk type body and strength. with that, kita is back to form and dia coming off with back-to-back wins as the curse is broken, arima kinen is here. but honsetly? the results arent important its what happens after with kita struggling to find her reason to race in the first place. its important to note this since this will help shape the ending in the way i think makes it more tolerable. eps 9-10 felt more filler though its still enjoyable to see the slice of life aspects.
as we head to ep 11 , this is where it starts. so kita suddenly hits her “peak” condition which makes her get weaker and weaker ever race. and i was taken a bit back on why it kinda just suddenly happen? they did foreshadowed this eariler but it was more like i didnt think the reason for it was just so idk... weird? well its fine idc about how it happen really its probably for the reason that this is based on the acutal race horse's career. but how this affects the story onwards is the real kicker. what they done well is that when kita’s coming terms with her career coming to an end and trying to give a worthy send off to everyone. to see kita’s career soar and make her dreams come true which she truly wanted after the arima kinen loss. to see everyone smiling and enjoy the sport of horse racing. sure that was good. but key characters like duramente, and diamond were left out of the race which really undersells the final races by a good margin. (especially duramente like we only saw her literally race once at ep 1, such wasted potiental on a cool character).
so in end i think even though the hiccups were clearly visble towards the end, it was still a fun watch regardless. this one is a bit longer than i thought. i had a lot more to say since i had to re-watch almost the whole season again just to understand what the hell was going on lmao. this is probably my least favorite uma anime but from here on out it gets much better. road to the top is next

(i dont review often/at all so grammer/capitalization be damned, if ur looking for an in-depth review go away)

i dont know why i decided to review s1 second. actually i do, s2 was too fucking good thats why. but know with the whole series under my brain, i still think season 1 was a good primer to the world of uma even with the problems i had with it.
lets talk about the animation, i think for 2018 anime, this is definitely below standards in terms of the median of what modern anime are today (although i would say some of its still pretty shit if you ask me but generally anime now have more “watachable” quality to it). you can just feel the way how static some of its sometimes and granted i dont think the industry put as much passion for gatcha game adaptations in general so its to be expected. (they got WAY better overtime with the sequels and movies so hey gotta start somewhere).

now lets start with the story/narrative of uma s1. you got this young girl in hokkaido trying to be the best japanese horse girl and maybe be the best world, big ambitions/protag energy the whole 9 yards. but its also more than, its for her family. one that that tragically died giving birth to her and the one who adopted and raised her. she trying to pay back a favor to the ones she cherished the most and do something they could be proud of. she sets off to a whole new environment where shes meeting fellow uma musumes, the city life and a huge prestigeous public school for the first time. so now, we got that outta the way this is where it starts. I thought maybe we going to get more in-depth into the story of special week and keep her as the main focal point throughout the story, which they sorta did. they focus more on the competition of horse racing and bonding with team spica, slowing learning about side characters. suzuka, spe best friend, is basically the dual protag of this story as well. she gets built up to be a rival of hers and grows with her throughtout the course of the story. the classic friends/rivals troupe is here is very much needed since they are pretty much the main core of the narrative. although s2 does this aspect much better, having this dynmaic with these two along with team spica chiming at times helps our protags give some light to the story to the alternative “H A V E Y O U E V E R P L A Y E D S O C C E R W I T H Y O U R L I F E O N T H E L I N E ?” (god that show sucks) anyways, the reason this first season is a little iffy to me is that they won’t really build the stakes in coordination with the pacing of the show. this causes some weird feeling of disconnection in which you’re not invested as much into races but still have to sell the feeling of “THIS ONE RACE IS THE ONE I HAVE TO WIN.” especially towards the end with broyle, which just kinda felt like a last minute shoehorn final boss for spe to beat (she is very beautiful and hot and french which i least respect). but the positive for this character being here is that she helps build the world with the international scene of uma musume which is really cool. hopefully they do something more with this since we only see the japanese side of uma, would like to see more experiments with greater world of the URA , expanding to a whole new side of uma.

overall, like i said its a good primer for the world uma musume and still made me wanna watch more of it which im glad i did since it just kept getting better as cygames goes full omega “i have all the money in the world” budget mode with there most recent stuff. i will be reviewing s3-rott-era movie-cingray afterwards so if yall interested to read my review stay tuned or something im not a review guy really (my second review ever).

(COMPLETELY IRRELEVENT SIDE THING THIS IS JUST MY THOUGHT PROCESS ABOUT REVIEWING STUFF I LIKE) something in me feels compelled to do this and honestly its kinda fun typing my thoughts away about the things i like. also im not profreading or trying to do any high in-depth analysis of the show. im just doing it for fun lmao since most of my friends watch anime without really saying much about. mostly saying “its good or bad” and say a thing or two they like/hate about what they watched. theres nothing wrong with enjoy media without having to be obsessive about it. but its to fun explore beyond that as well.

(i dont review often/at all so grammer/capitalization be damned, if ur looking for an in-depth review go away)

as someone who is currently just started playing uma musume recently as the global release is popping off, and someone who likes watching anime, i decided to check out what the adaptations were like. in short: its pretty amazing. i never thought i could get into cute horse girls racing, but im a big girls und panzer fan so i guess this is just par for the course.

in terms of the animation i think it was decent, the 3d was jarring at times but i personally dont get offended if the characters at least have more than 1 frame key animations at time. when i saw the ovas/movies, i was taken a bit back by the quality difference. the moments of sakuga really made those races felt more intense in place of story which was smart. for people who just care about seeing umas race, i think that is more friendly to get into if you do not want to get too invested. i hope cygames pictures releases more content like those ovas/movies, it would be benefit for both new fans to get into uma musume and veterans to showcase more umas that you would not normally get within the main series.

as for the score, i think it was well done, they definitely made use of the game's score which is already great to help give more context to help compliment moments throughout the show. (ngl this section is kinda short since im not an expert with music overall so ye)

as for the story, this is real meat and potatoes. with season 1 being more of what felt like primer to uma musume world with not much building up stakes (e.g. bryole being kinda felt a last second addition for spe to beat), s2 came in with more of a cohesive and "to the point" narrative that was easy to understand and invest in. probably the one thing i would criticize is the last minute injury mejiro kinda felt random and me thinking that i would get to see an epic final race against teio woulda been an amazing end, that made me really disappointed. still, i think the end race was very much earned and made me empathize with teio more than i thought i would care about. the core of what this season uma meant to me personally since i have dealt with similar situations myself really struck a chord with me and inspires the "never give up" feeling that they drive home almost perfectly.

as now, i am caught with everything uma related in terms of anime (road to the top, the new era movie, gray, etc), and its been great so far. if you're a new uma musume fan like me, or just looking for a sports anime to watch, this is a great piece of media to add to ur watch list.

my favorite umas if yall curious: opera o, teio, maruzenky, rudolf, and ogrui cap